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WM/Polisberg
The city of Polisberg sits on the Shining Coast of the Antillan Sea and is generally considered to be the western end of civilization. It is supported by a few farming villages, several mines, and a fishing fleet. The protects the town from monster incursions, and the scouts and the rangers of the provide early warning of attacks from the lands nearby. Law and Order The Polisberg Militia acts as a law keeping force, supplemented by the duty of citizens to form a posse. As the militia is undermanned for its tasks, crimes against property are generally treated lightly, and brawling is tolerated as long as only fists are used. Assault with deadly weapons, armed robbery, and attempted murder or murder are taken much more seriously, and the combined efforts of the Thieves' & Mages' Guilds and the temples and Druids' Groves will be put to task to find the perpetrator. Punishment consists of heavy fines for assault or armed robbery and execution for murder. Currency Polisberg uses the typical coins of civilization: a brass bit worth $0.25, a copper penny worth $1, a silver talent worth $4, and a gold octo worth $80. All of these coins except the octo are large and 100 of any of them weigh 1 pound. Octos are actually slices of the one ounce gold noble, but most transactions are conducted in talents or pennies. Prestige items like plate harness, fine horses, or carriages are priced in nobles. Polisberg merchants will happily accept other coins, valued by metal weight: gold at $8000/lb, silver at $400/lb, copper at $100/lb, and brass at $25/lb. Mages' Guild The Polisberg Mages' guild supports delvers mostly by casting spells for them. They charge the . They also make concoctions, potions, alchemical amulets, and spell stones; these are available at normal prices. No one in the Guild can create magic items, nor do they know of any enchanters in other lands. They can transfer enchantments from one suitable item to another. This is a slow process, but not demanding of the mages' time, so they only charge $1 per power point of enchantment transfer. It takes 1 week per 100 power points of enchantment transferred. Delvers must either do without some of their equipment or spend money to stay at the Inn while waiting. Merchant Services All types of gear are available in Polisberg, but special orders cost 50% more than normal. All types of weapons, shields, and armor are also available, but there is a 50% surcharge for difficult items: * Weapons with modifiers other than Balanced, Fine, or Ornate * Shields with modifiers other than Balanced, Fine, Mirrored, or Ornate * Armor with modifiers other than Fine, Ornate, or Spiked ** Thieves' armor is available at normal price, but only by going to the Thieves' Guild. The Merchant's Guild doesn't sell it. Accurate appraisers are also available for hire. They will identify all characteristics of and price a piece of gear or treasure for 8% of its final value. Blacksmith Services The skilled bladesmiths and armorers of Polisberg can add new qualities to existing weapons and armor, even to magic items. However, it is very expensive. Adding a new quality to an existing item costs twice as much as buying a new item with only that quality. For example, a fine axe costs $500. Upgrading an existing balanced axe to a fine, balanced axe costs $1000. The armorers of Polisberg can also refit armor to fit anyone of the same size as the original owner, including races that cannot normally share armor. This costs 1/5th the price of the armor in question, or 1/3rd the price for races that cannot normally share items. This is mostly useful for resizing fine armor, but delvers with odd morphology might take advantage of it. All custom blacksmith services require that the owner of the equipment be present in town. Delvers who are barred entrance at the town gates cannot take advantage of blacksmith services. The delver can bring along a friend to do the negotiating, though, as per the normal Dungeon Fantasy rules. Hirelings The good people of Polisberg are willing to hire themselves out to delvers in need of guards, grooms, guides, and valets. All hirelings require each week's pay in advance, and expect to be paid for the return trip from a delve site. They provide their own gear, drink, and food (at 4 lbs/day). Under no conditions will they enter an actual delve site, but they can be counted on to watch the delvers' gear and campsite and defend it against random monsters. The bodies and gear of hirelings killed in service are expected to be returned to their families, along with a death stipend of a month's salary. For every 4 non-guard hirelings hired, at least 1 guard must be hired. The people of Polisberg will not enter the Westmarch without protection. Hirelings expect to be tipped after a particularly successful delve. Failure to do so makes it harder to recruit future hirelings. The definition of a successful delve, and the amount of the tip, have to be judged by each delver.